Legends 75: Precious

Chasing treasure has always had an allure. But while legends of lost treasures and those who seek them are often entertaining, they also hide a darker question: how much is that treasure truly worth? Narrated and produced by Aaron Mahnke, with writing by Alex Robinson and research by Cassandra de Alba. ————————— PRE-ORDER EXHUMED TODAY: aaronmahnke.com/exhumed https://www.aaronmahnke.com/exhumed ————————— Lore Resources: Get Ad-Free Lore: lorepodcast.com/support https://www.lorepodcast.com/support Episode Music: lorepodcast.com/music https://www.lorepodcast.com/music Episode Sources: lorepodcast.com/sources https://www.lorepodcast.com/sources Official Lore Merchandise: lorepodcast.com/shop https://www.lorepodcast.com/shop ————————— Sponsors: BetterHelp: Lore is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at BetterHelp.com/LORE http://www.betterhelp.com/lore, and get on your way to being your best self. Good Chop: Get high-quality American meat and seafood straight to your door. Use code 50lore to get $50 off plus free shipping on your first order at goodchop.com/podcast https://www.goodchop.com/podcast. CookUnity: Try the freshest, best-tasting meal delivery made by your favorite celebrity chefs. Go to CookUnity.com/LORE https://www.cookunity.com/lore or enter code LORE before checkout, for 50% off your first week. SimpliSafe: Secure your home with 24/7 professional monitoring. Sign up today at SimpliSafe.com/Lore http://simplisafe.com/lore to get 50% off a new SimpliSafe system. ————————— To report a concern regarding a radio-style, non-Aaron ad in this episode, reach out to ads @ lorepodcast.com with the name of the company or organization so we can look into it. To advertise on this podcast please email: [email protected]. Or go to: https://advertising.libsyn.com/lore ————————— ©2026 Aaron Mahnke. All rights reserved.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Aaron Mahnke?

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• 0:44Aaron Mahnke?

  from Audible's 1984, and spatial Dolby Atmos sound design, Audible's Dracula invites you to welcome literature's most shadowy figure into your home. Feel the terror of being hunted, and the thrill of the hunt. Don't miss this year's best new audio thriller. Bram Stoker's Dracula, Audible's new full cast original adaptation. Written by Robin Ahearn and directed by Mary Lambert. Now on Audible, listen to The Darkness. Go to audible.com/listen to Dracula. This episode was made possible by Warby Parker. Before Warby Parker, I had to do that thing that we all hate: Stand in front of a wall of frames and find the needle in the haystack. Just trying to buy glasses shouldn't require a spreadsheet, right? That's why I am obsessed with Warby Parker.

• 1:29Aaron Mahnke?

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• 2:13Aaron Mahnke?

  but Warby Parker nailed it and these glasses are absolutely amazing. They look and fit so great. Right now, buy one pair of glasses and get 20% off any additional pairs at warbyparker.com/lore. That's 20% off any additional pairs when you purchase one pair at W A R B Y Parker.com/lore.

• 2:48Aaron Mahnke?

  There's nothing more American than trying to make a quick buck. It's so ingrained into our culture that even kids get in on the action, and Floyd was no exception. Even as a boy, Floyd knew that his hometown was special and therefore marketable. People came from all over the country to wonder over Kentucky's Mammoth Cave. And to this day, it's still the largest known cave system in the world, and it contains thousands of years' worth of Native American history. Little Floyd didn't care much about the history of the artifacts that he found scattered around the area's caves. All he knew was that they were valuable. So he spent his days as a kid running through the underground systems

• 3:30Aaron Mahnke?

  that dotted the hillsides, collecting things like pottery and arrowheads to sell directly to tourists. Years later, Floyd was still at it as an adult, if not more ambitious than ever before. And when he found a new cave near Mammoth, he had an idea. If he could expand some of the narrower passageways, tourists would be able to access a beautiful grotto chamber, and they would pay him for that privilege. One winter day, after weeks of digging in the cold, Floyd noticed that his gas lamp was running out. Not too eager to be stuck underground without a light, he started to leave, only to get stuck in a narrow passage. As he struggled to free himself, his foot knocked over the lamp, plunging him into darkness.

• 4:15Aaron Mahnke?

  Right before, a 30-pound boulder fell on his leg, pinning him in. His neighbors eventually found him, but no matter how hard they tried, they couldn't get him out. For days on end, Floyd was stuck under that boulder, completely reliant on family and friends to bring him sustenance so he could survive. Also, those tourists that he had dreamed about showed up. They'd come to see the man trapped in the cave, to watch the rescue efforts and to be part of the experience. And while those tourists stayed there outside the cave, they built campfires. Fires that heated the ground, which melted underground ice, which shifted the rocks. No, the boulder pinning Floyd inside didn't come loose. The ceiling did.

• 4:59Aaron Mahnke?

  People tried to dig him out, of course, but it was no use. Two weeks after he got stuck there, Floyd Collins died, trapped in the dark, completely alone. All he had wanted to do was attract a few tourists, but as they say, "You should be careful what you wish for, because you never know when your gold mine, literal or figurative, will collapse." I'm Aaron Mahnke, and this is Lore Legends. Glory, God, and gold.

• 5:42Aaron Mahnke?

  Of course, world domination is always a lot more complicated than that, but in the tiniest nutshell possible, that's what the European colonization of the New World all boiled down to. But let's focus on that last one: the gold. While Christopher Columbus was technically looking for a faster trade route when he bumped into islands off the southern coast of North America, his personal goals were significantly more selfish. He wanted to line his own pockets by finding Japan, which Marco Polo had once called the "Island of Endless Gold." Upon meeting the indigenous people there, who most certainly were not from Japan, by the way, one of the very first questions that Columbus asked was, "Where they got the gold that glittered on their earrings and necklaces?"

• 6:26Aaron Mahnke?

  And when they didn't have an answer that he liked, he moved on to the next group. And as he island-hopped around the West Indies, he stopped at every single landmass so that he could continue his search. And once he did strike gold, he immediately told his Spanish benefactors all about it, claiming that there were an untold number of mines in the New World, and that the rivers flowed with the precious metal. He didn't need to find a shorter path to Japan after all. The land of endless gold was right there at his fingertips. From that moment onward, almost every European who traveled to North America was there at least in part to treasure hunt. They saw this previously uncharted land as a golden opportunity, pun definitely intended,

• 7:08Aaron Mahnke?

  to make a name for themselves and to rake in the dough while they were at it. And so, really, it isn't all that surprising that the United States was built on a bedrock of treasure legends. The concept of uncovering hidden treasure is in our nation's very blood. We've always been the land where a pauper could become a prince. Treasure is simply the most appealing means to that end. After all, it takes a lot less work to stumble upon a diamond mine or dig up a chest full of gold coins than it does to painstakingly build up your bank account with hard labor. If you do it right, treasure hunting can be a fast track to instant wealth. The problem is that, over the years, there have been a lot of opinions about how to do it right.

• 7:49Aaron Mahnke?

  According to Joseph Smith of Latter Day Saints fame, "The best time to dig is in the high summer." He claimed that "the heat of the sun makes the treasure chest come closer to the ground's surface." Others have said that "the best time to uncover treasure is in the hours before midnight and dawn." The moon has some kind of magnetic pull over the metal hidden in the ground, although there were disagreements on whether that power lay in the full moon or in the new moon. Buried treasure was also once believed to be guarded by spirits or enchantments, and before any gold could be extracted from the earth, hunters had to deal with that little problem first. Some consulted with spiritual texts like grimoires, others with astrologers. Benjamin Franklin himself wrote about the practice, although his musings on the subject

• 8:34Aaron Mahnke?

  were less than positive. He said anyone who took advice about treasure hunting from an astrologer was, and I quote, "a poor, deluded money hunter." Diluted or not though, these treasure seekers were creative enough to develop their own methods for "counteracting" any adverse spells or angry ghosts that they might meet on their quest for riches. Some techniques were as simple as spilling animal blood on the ground, but others were a bit more complicated. One treasure hunter in Vermont wrote that they liked to smear nine steel spikes with chicken blood and pig feces. Then they would draw a circle over where they believed the treasure was hidden, four of the spikes were driven into the ground at the four compass points around the circle, and the others were put into the center.

• 9:18Aaron Mahnke?

  Then, and only then, could they start to dig without the fear of supernatural retribution. So, how did this treasure-filled ground become cursed or haunted in the first place? Well, the legends offer us a mix of options. Some chose to just kill a random guy and bury him with the treasure, cursing him to stand watch for the rest of his afterlife. While most effective, this method wasn't always totally foolproof. And usually the enraged spirit would do its job, attacking treasure hunters or leading them astray. But sometimes they wised up to the game. Tired of their unending task, these ghosts would find a decent fellow and actually lead him to the treasure so that their spirit could finally be released. Some cultures, though, adopted the practice of burying the heads of their enemies alongside

• 10:03Aaron Mahnke?

  their gold. According to Gullah folklore, the act of murdering and beheading someone, and then putting that decapitated head into the ground with your treasure, was how to make a brand-new spirit called a "platteye." Now, the key here is that a platteye wasn't the ghost of whoever was killed. It was more of a twisted, vengeful spirit born of hate, something completely unique that had nothing to do with the victim. It didn't even look like a human being. Platteys could take just about any form, from a headless dog to a flayed calf with bloody skin hanging off its bones. And unlike your average treasure-guarding ghost, there was no risk that the platteye would ever lead people to their treasure. Driven solely by malice, they caused treasure hunters to lose their way, and eventually to lose their minds as well.

• 10:49Aaron Mahnke?

  Stories about plaid eyes exploded after the Civil War. Northerners suspected that many of the plantation owners down south had buried their wealth to hide it from the invading Union Army. And the more macabre versions of these theories speculated that the plantation owners had decapitated their enslaved people and buried their heads with the gold to keep it safe. People have always been willing to go far, perhaps a bit too far, for money. So whether you are preserving it or looking for more, it's always good to stop and ask yourself an important question: When is the search no longer worth it?

• 11:35Aaron Mahnke?

  Word association is a funny thing. For example, it's impossible to talk about treasure without thinking of pirates. And it's impossible to think about pirates without thinking of the man himself: Blackbeard. Over the years, many have searched for the elusive chest of gold that's said to be tucked somewhere along the east coast of America. But none have ever found it, unless, of course, you believe the stories about 1928. Local legend claims that three duck hunters accidentally stumbled across a brick vault that contained Blackbeard's treasure chest, which was supposedly filled to the brim with Spanish gold, pieces of eight, and precious jewels. Now, there's no actual record of Blackbeard ever raiding a Spanish vessel,

• 12:19Aaron Mahnke?

  so no one really knows where all that Spanish gold might have come from. But regardless, these men weren't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. They quickly dug it up, loitered it onto their boat, and left. Neither they nor their treasure were ever seen again. Three days later, another group of hunters came across the broken vault. They could still see the drag marks that had been left by the chest trailing across the sand. And that scant clue was supposedly the last time anyone ever saw any trace of Blackbeard's treasure. But never fear, North America has a deep mind full of treasure stories. And not all of them involve vanishing pirates. For example, during the colonial period, tall tales about gold being found in conjunction with Native Americans were common.

• 13:03Aaron Mahnke?

  Sometimes their treasures were said to be hidden inside caves, and other times, and I quote, "brave soldiers" would uncover treasure in a Native American village after a raid. One such story took place in October of 1759, when a British military unit called Rogers Rangers attacked an Abenaki village called St. Francis. Now, initially Rogers Rangers weren't known for being the cream of the crop. The rest of the British forces looked down on them for not sticking to formal respectable methods of warfare. Basically, their guerrilla tactics made Rogers Rangers the unpopular kids. Which may be why their commander, Major Robert Rogers, falsely reported that his troops killed 200 Abenaki during the raid on St. Francis.

• 13:47Aaron Mahnke?

  The French said that it was more like 30, and that 2/3 of that number were just unarmed women and children. But Robert Rogers and his Rangers had a name to make for themselves, and so they inflated the numbers. And not only that, but they decided to shave a little extra off the top, just to keep it for themselves. The Abenaki village had been called St. Francis after the Jesuit mission that had been set up there. But any semblance of faith that the Rangers might have had didn't preclude them from raiding the mission just like they had raided the rest of the town. And so, when they left, they carried away heaps of money, jewelry, and a 10-pound silver statue of the Virgin Mary. I can imagine that after years of being the butt of jokes, Rogers Rangers were feeling pretty good about themselves.

• 14:31Aaron Mahnke?

  But that triumph deflated pretty quickly, when, within a matter of hours, the French and the Abenaki arrived hot on their trail. From that point on, their luck ran out. They managed to keep out of reach of their pursuers, but in order to do so, they were forced to split up. One group stayed on the run throughout the winter, but without the proper gear or supplies, they grew hungry and weak. Some accounts claim, they even resorted to cannibalism. Eventually, they became hopelessly lost in New Hampshire's White Mountains. Convinced their stolen treasure had cursed them, one of the soldiers threw the Silver Madonna statue down a ravine. But his change of heart wouldn't save them. Just one soldier would survive the trek, and he left all the treasure where it fell.

• 15:14Aaron Mahnke?

  It must be said, there are no records to prove this story. But over the years, people have occasionally dug up random valuables in the White Mountains. In 1816, for example, one farmer found a set of golden candelabras. A decade later, someone else found an incense burner on the banks of the Quebec River, while another guy found a chainmail shirt hidden inside a tree. But the one piece of treasure that people have fruitlessly searched for is that silver Madonna statue. Some believe that it was carried downriver, while others speculate that it was buried in a secret location. And according to legend, some treasure hunters have witnessed a phantom steeple glittering beyond the mountains.

• 15:55Aaron Mahnke?

  A hint, they say, that the Virgin Mary is still out there for anyone who's willing to go the distance.

• 16:14Aaron Mahnke?

  Jacob was the richest man in Arizona, but he didn't start out that way. After emigrating to America from Germany and hearing wild tales about untold treasures out west, he made his way to Arizona. In the 1860s, he settled near these superstition mountains. And then he achieved what almost every man in the Wild West had tried and failed to do: he struck it rich. No one knows when or how, but it was soon clear to his neighbors that he had hit the mother lode, and he wasn't all that eager to share his wealth with them. In fact, he refused to tell any of his friends where his gold mine was hidden. Of course, people tried to follow him into the mountains, but Jacob knew the superstition mountains better than anyone, and he always shook his pursuers off his trail.

• 16:58Aaron Mahnke?

  Because of this, Jacob very nearly took his secret to the grave. And truth be told, maybe he should have. On his deathbed in 1891, he decided to share the location of his mine with his friend Julia Thomas, who'd been nursing him through his illness. He even showed her a box of gold that he'd hidden under his bed, and told her that there was at least $20 million worth buried in the Superstition Mountains. According to Jacob, the mine's entrance was covered with so many logs that, apparently, you could have driven an entire pack of mules over it, without even knowing it was there. And none of this was good news for Julia. So few people traveled through the superstitions that there were hardly any footpaths, let alone signs or easily recognizable landmarks.

• 17:43Aaron Mahnke?

  And on top of all that, she was taking directions from a delirious old man who was dying of pneumonia. There's no guarantee that anything Jacob told her was accurate or true. Some of his alleged instructions included vague clues like, "You might have to crawl through a hole", or "It's located near a cave that was once used as a hideout", and my personal favorite, "There's a juniper tree with a long branch near the entrance." And still, Julia gave it her best shot. In 1892, she asked her two brothers to help, but nothing ever came of it. The trio was eventually forced to admit defeat after going completely broke. And in an attempt to put some money back in her pocket, Julia started selling maps that she had drawn,

• 18:27Aaron Mahnke?

  based on the clues that Jacob had given her. Now, over the years, the legend of Jacob Wall's treasure grew in both reach and absurdity. Storytellers added outlandish details to the already unbelievable tale. Some claimed that Jacob Walls had killed at least half a dozen men to keep his horde safe, while others said that the Apache Thunder God was keeping the mine hidden from mortal eyes, a theory that local Apache tribes have since scoffed at. And eventually, it became the most famous mine in Arizona, maybe even in the Wild West. And with that grand reputation, came a grand title: The Lost Dutchman Mine. It was probably an allusion to his first language, German, also known as Deutsch, but Jacob was definitely not Dutch.

• 19:12Aaron Mahnke?

  The mine became so well-known that within a matter of just a few years, Julia Thomas's abandoned search was picked up by dozens of other searchers. And they too ran out of money before they struck gold. But, all things considered, those who walked away broke were the lucky ones, because they made it out alive. Others were less fortunate.

• 19:33Aaron Mahnke?

  In 1931, for example, forty years after Jacob's death, a retired federal worker named Adolf Ruth traveled from DC to Arizona. He might have had a pretty boring professional life, but his personal life was far more interesting, because Adolf, you see, was a treasure hunter. And, once he retired, he set his sights on the big prize, the only prize, the lost Dutchman mine. In the spring of 1931, he convinced some cowboy prospectors from a nearby ranch to take him into the superstition mountains. And they made it clear that they were doing this against their better judgment, but Adolf didn't care. His dream was finally within reach. A week after Adolf had been dropped off into the mountains, the ranch owner decided to go check on him.

• 20:17Aaron Mahnke?

  When he rode into Adolf's camp, though, nobody was there. And based on the ranch owner's estimates, no one had been there for a while. Riding back to town, he raised the alarm. Hours later, a huge search party was in the mountains looking for Adolf. And while this hunt for the treasure hunter made national headlines, no one ever found Adolf Ruth. That is, until almost a year later, in December of 1931, when an archaeologist found his skull. The rest of his skeleton was found just a month later, and local authorities determined that Adolf had died of exhaustion and dehydration, and that wild animals had done the rest. A year after this grim discovery, two men were camping by a river when they found a bottle floating in the water

• 21:01Aaron Mahnke?

  with a message inside. It was signed by Adolf Ruth, and it read, "I'm sitting under a tree in a creek with a broken leg. I've got to have help quick." And then, at the very bottom, there was a postscript. "P.S. Have found the lost Dutchman."

• 21:32Aaron Mahnke?

  All of us know that treasure, whatever form it might take, can be valuable. But value and worth are two very different things. And at some point, we have to ask ourselves, when is a treasure no longer worth the hunt? Yes, a pile of silver or a bag of rubies could change your life, maybe even for generations. But how far are you willing to go to find it? Long ago, men were ready to fight angry ghosts for the chance to find a few coins. Julia Thomas and her brothers gave up their life savings. And Adolf Ruth, along with countless others, gave up their lives. And the Lost Dutchman Mine hasn't stopped killing people. Even with modern tools like cell phones and GPS, treasure hunters have struggled to

• 22:15Aaron Mahnke?

  survive the harsh landscape of the Superstitions. In fact, there have been deaths as recently as this century. And the saddest part is that none of them should have even bothered, because the Lost Dutchman Mine was probably located a long, long time ago. You see, back in 1893, just two years after Jacob Walls passed away, a flash flood revealed a rich deposit of gold in the Superstitions. This new mine was dubbed the Mammoth, and in the decades that followed, it produced over a million dollars' worth of gold. Today, there are those who believe that the Mammoth Mine was actually the Lost Dutchman. It was easily one of the most well-stocked gold mines in the region. And even more convincing, it was found in the same exact area where Julia Thomas had

• 23:00Aaron Mahnke?

  spent months of her life desperately searching. The promise of wealth, of a softer, more comfortable life, of nice things, is certainly a tempting sparkle. But not everything that glitters is actually gold. Sometimes that deep hole, or long-forgotten mine, holds something else, something darker. The loss of everything you hold dear, maybe even your life.

• 23:39Aaron Mahnke?

  Growing up, it felt like treasure stories were all around me. Pirates, miners, random people looking through their grandmother's attic. And those treasure stories often took the form of a condensed hero's journey, where the destination wasn't really the point, it was how they got there that mattered most. But some people are just lucky. And occasionally, as one last story will show us, some people get to bypass all that journey stuff and head straight for the treasure. Stick around through this brief sponsor break to hear all about it.

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• 26:44Aaron Mahnke?

  I want you to imagine what a treasure hunter looks like. Now, some of you may envision a one-eyed pirate, others a grizzled prospector, or a Spanish conquistador. You might even see an Egyptian tomb raider, or a Robin Hood-type figure. But I can bet, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that not a single one of you pictured a suburban California couple in their 40s. Now, to be fair, they weren't necessarily treasure hunters. They didn't set out to find anything. They weren't following a map or carrying shovels. But that doesn't change the fact that they both stumbled across the largest treasure to ever be found on American soil. In February of 2013, John and Mary, both pseudonyms, by the way, were doing what they did every evening.

• 27:25Aaron Mahnke?

  They were walking their dogs along a nature trail on their property in northern California. This particular area was one of their favorites, and they had privately dubbed it "Saddle Ridge." John and Mary were climbing up a hill when they noticed something protruding from the soil in front of them. It looked almost like a metal can. And in fact, once they dug it out of the ground with some scavenged sticks, the cylinder was so heavy that they assumed that it was filled with lead paint. Curious though, they decided to take the mysterious "maybe paint can" home with them. They figured that they would probably have some tools there that could hack through the lid. But it turns out that they wouldn't need the extra help in getting their mysterious object open. Because on their way back, John accidentally dropped it. The lid opened a crack, and John saw a sparkle.

• 28:10Aaron Mahnke?

  The paint can, it turns out, was filled to the brim with gold coins. John and Mary returned to the spot where they had uncovered their treasure, but this time they brought metal detectors. And all told, they located seven more cans of gold, bringing them to a grand total of eight. Each can was filled with the exact same gold coins, totaling 1,427 pieces. For a while, John and Mary kept their newfound hoard hidden in an ice chest. When they did some research on what they'd found, they were able to determine that all the coins were legal tender, albeit very old forms of it. Each one had been minted in the United States between the years 1847 and 1894.

• 28:52Aaron Mahnke?

  And all together, the coins added up to more than $27,980. Eventually, they decided that they needed an expert's opinion, so they brought their coins in to be appraised. And that's how they learned that their little jackpot was worth far more than their initial estimate. When taking into account the rarity of most of the coins, that $27,000 was actually more like $10 million. John and Mary finally went public with their discovery in February of 2014. The rest of the world dubbed their remarkable find "The Saddle Ridge Hoard." And then, everybody jumped into speculating where all that gold had come from. Some hopefuls have attempted to connect the treasure back to famous names like Jesse James

• 29:36Aaron Mahnke?

  or Black Bart, without much luck. Others wondered if it was all stolen from the San Francisco Mint back in 1901, the same year that the Mint had reported $30,000 in theft. Unfortunately, that theory died when people realized that the coins had been minted all across the country and not just in San Francisco. To this day, no one knows where the gold coins came from, or who put them there in those cans. All we know is that John and Mary turned out to be some of the luckiest people in America.

• 30:19Aaron Mahnke?

  This episode of Lore Legends was produced by me, Aaron Mahnke, with writing by Alex Robinson and research by Cassandra DeAlba. Just a reminder, I have a brand new history book coming out on August 4th that's called Exhumed, and it explores the roots of the Mercy Brown story and the New England vampire panic through the lens of centuries of folklore, medical advancements, and pseudoscience. Exhumed is going to be in hardcover, audiobook, and ebook. And the audiobook will be narrated by me, of course, and you can think of it as like a 20-episode mini-series of lore, or maybe like a brand-new season of Unobscured. But here's a cool thing: if you preorder the hardcover right now, my publisher has a cool webpage set up where you can submit your receipt and get a free gorgeous tote bag.

• 31:01Aaron Mahnke?

  Head over to aaronmahnke.com/exhumed to learn more about the book, find the links for the tote bag, and lock in your copy today. And if you want to stay up on what's new, you can follow the show on YouTube, Threads, Blue Sky, and Instagram. Just search for Lore Podcast, all one word, and click that follow button. And when you do, say hi. I like it when people say hi. And as always, thanks for listening.

• 31:36Speaker 05

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